GDT: Game 47: Avalanche @ Blues (6 pm MT, Jan. 19, 2015)

[bradrich99]

I think the Blues played great and have a great forecheck. As much as their play lead to them having success on the forecheck though, it was also successful because the Avs are not a good team this year, and their D core is extremely susceptible to being pressured. Not just in the D zone, but in the neutral zone. The Blues strength is the Avs biggest weakness.

It's what Minnesota figured out last year, and what pretty much every team has utilized against them this year. Pressure, pressure, pressure, leads to mistake, mistake, goal. A good team handles the forecheck by moving the puck quickly, and it puts the other team out of position, but the Avs panic a bit too much when they're pressured, and they don't have much confidence right now to make clean passes. They also can't contain other teams and break up plays because they're not good enough defensively, so they just get hemmed in their own zone and eventually there's a breakdown.

Teams like St Louis feast on this. All they have to do is clog up the neutral zone, and forecheck hard, and eventually the Avs will get frustrated and make one too many mistakes.

I follow 3 teams - Blues, Avs and Habs. I have probably seen all but two or three Avs games this year and feel that (from an outsiders perspective) this post accurately sums it up. As much as I hate agreeing with Foppa (I usually don't...) he nailed it here. Teams like STL know that pressure will eventually cause turnovers by the Avs D. I don't blame it as much on individuals as I do the system. The Avs are way to reliant on individual effort and dont seem to have a support system in place to relieve forecheck pressure. Watch the Blues. How often do they leave a guy without 2 or 3 options? Their D plays calmly because the system is set up to be that way. I think that asking more from Barrie or others is fine. However, ask and expect much more from the Coaching staff too.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

If this team trades for Myers I hope they re-up Hejda next year. He's been playing good hockey and I think he would be fantastic with a little less time on ice.

Hejda, for the second year in a row, is slowing down because he's playing too many minutes. I think it's time to move on from him.

I don't think Everberg will come out of the lineup any time soon. Roy was playing him on the PK last night with O'Reilly, and had him out there the last minute of the game to get a goal. I think he has to like the way he's playing.

 

[Ararana]

Hejda, for the second year in a row, is slowing down because he's playing too many minutes. I think it's time to move on from him.

I don't think Everberg will come out of the lineup any time soon. Roy was playing him on the PK last night with O'Reilly, and had him out there the last minute of the game to get a goal. I think he has to like the way he's playing.

I'd be ok with giving him a 1 yr deal. He'd probably sign pretty cheap given his age plus I read somewhere he wanted to stay in COL.

If ROR for Meyers falls through and they're able to snag a UFA D over the summer:

XXX - EJ
Hejda - Meyers
Stuart - Barrie


Let Bigras play in Lake Erie for a year, no need to rush him. Hejda's 1 year will fall off when it's time to re-up EJ, Mack, and Barrie.

 

[freeboy]

I hate to say this but the Avs have a sickness

Call it pride call it growing pains, but when they play as a team, like the game they lost in OT prior to this one they look like a good team. This game against St L showed just how bad we are as a team. I am not sure one trade can fix it... but there is a big issue with this team failing to pass failing to support failing to put a puck on net in the pp....
I still as an optimist see the potential to rally and turn it around, but this must happen NOW... winning the next hard 4 games and playing team hockey... Boston Dallas and Nash X 2 will be our season... 2 or three losses in the next four games would really put us in a nearly unreachable playoff spot. Winning all four at least would give us a chance....

Im happy we are seeing signs of life from some of the talent in the top 6, but honestly things are bad.
Bright spots, Mitchel looks like a decent two way forward that is learning how to play.
Ror looks like he also can play two way hockey.
Johnson looks good as two way D man

The rookies all show signs of NHL talent.

 

[henchman21]

Hejda, for the second year in a row, is slowing down because he's playing too many minutes. I think it's time to move on from him.

This... Hejda isn't a top pairing defender, and it shows as he wears down. If his minutes were limited to 17-18 for most of the season, he could do spot duty on the top pairing for injuries... but that is all that should be expected out of him at this point. Sadly, the Avs don't really have a better option.

This team really needs another player or two who is confident and good at moving the puck. It would drastically improve this team's offense and possession time. Right now teams know if they can shutdown Barrie and EJ, they can stop the Avs' transition game and thus their offense. It is way too easy for teams to gameplan against the Avs.

 

[ABasin]

I already said I thought Barrie had a weak game but be honest here. You have argued that Barrie should be traded for at least three years. Everyone who reads this forum know you don't like him as a player, so it's not like you chose a random player to gif here.

I guarantee I can make multiple gifs of every single Avs defender losing the puck to the Blues forecheck but it seems rather pointless. We all watched the game and saw how the Blues ate up Avs today.

Blues did a great job on the forecheck and backcheck today. Avs got nothing and had very few passing options. No Avs players looked good. Even Everberg who had a good game had some glaring turnovers.

I don't want to throw myself in the middle of your debate, but I think you're both correct here.

I don't see the big deal on the gifs, nor do I see any great need to "balance" ones' gifs. If Foppa simply wanted to make the point that Barrie was a stoned monkey with the puck last night, he has the right to do that. And I agree - Barrie was really quite bad last night. Not only his usual ineffectiveness along the boards, but even out in open ice he was throwing the puck all over the place.

But to Freudian's point, almost every Av player was overmatched last night.

 

[Pokecheque]

Painful game to watch. I finally had to turn it off for a bit, because this team is playing an absolutely unwatchable brand of hockey right now.

Pierre Maguire kept saying how the Avs were getting completely outworked along the boards, and it's obvious why. Roy just wants his players to collapse inward in the defensive zone and block shots. For all the glaring mistakes Barrie made, and yes, he made plenty last night, he at least was engaged. Guenin on the other hand, would cover the net and whenever a Blues player wandered over to his side instead of rushing over to crunch him in the corner he'd float between the player and net. I don't completely blame Guenin here, for once, he's doing what his coaches are telling him to do.

Roy also needs to start telling certain d-men to quit pinching. Stuart and Guenin have no business being anywhere in the offensive zone except for the points.

Again, not calling for the coach's head here, but he's icing a team with a very bad, very slow D, relying too much on grinders, and employing an passive shot-blocking defensive scheme that's only making the problem worse. He is a BIG part of the problem and doing a piss-poor job of coaching whether anyone here wants to say so or not.

 

[hawk30]

I wonder how much of the defensive zone system is Roy and how much is Tourigny.

 

[cgf]

Tough game, but we didn't respond in the second well enough, and when we turned it up in the last few minutes and the third period, we didn't do enough. We could've gotten a result here.

 

[InjuredChoker]

what a brutal game.

i don't know which one was worse, pierre or barrie.

 

[henchman21]

I wonder how much of the defensive zone system is Roy and how much is Tourigny.

I really don't think it is either of theirs... they switched to this more generic system to try to stop the bleeding of the last system which was a Tourigny system. They went from an aggressive man coverage to a passive shot blocking zone to reduce the shots against. If Roy and Tourigny had their preferred personnel, I don't think this is the system they would implement.

 

[Freudian]

Hejda should be traded because he's turning 37, won't be part of any Avs team that challenge and because he has decent value.

Teams that doesn't make the playoffs should look to trade players that aren't part of their future not only because of the extra picks they get, but because of the spots it opens up for their AHLers to audition for next year down the stretch.

 

[cgf]

The avs are way too close to a playoff spot to be worrying about opening spots for AHLers to try out. If a good offer for Hejda comes in then you don't automatically say no, but you don't say yes to whatever just because he's a rental.

 

[DanishAvsfan]

I think the Blues played great and have a great forecheck. As much as their play lead to them having success on the forecheck though, it was also successful because the Avs are not a good team this year, and their D core is extremely susceptible to being pressured. Not just in the D zone, but in the neutral zone. The Blues strength is the Avs biggest weakness.

It's what Minnesota figured out last year, and what pretty much every team has utilized against them this year. Pressure, pressure, pressure, leads to mistake, mistake, goal. A good team handles the forecheck by moving the puck quickly, and it puts the other team out of position, but the Avs panic a bit too much when they're pressured, and they don't have much confidence right now to make clean passes. They also can't contain other teams and break up plays because they're not good enough defensively, so they just get hemmed in their own zone and eventually there's a breakdown.

Teams like St Louis feast on this. All they have to do is clog up the neutral zone, and forecheck hard, and eventually the Avs will get frustrated and make one too many mistakes.

Yeah, you're no doubt right that it is a combination of the Avs' ineptitude and the Blues' aptitude. However, I do think that the Avs' play has improved lately. Even last night there were moments when the Avs showed signs of being able to challenge the Blues. My point was and still is that the game last night should not lead us to think that the current Avs team is terrible. After the bad start they have shown themselves to be a mediocre team, not a bad one. If they play up to their abilities and if they are the benefactors of a bit of luck they might sneak into the play-offs as one of the wild-card teams.

 

[StayAtHomeAv]

Kinda funny hearing the NBC crew giving it to the Avs for playing such terrible hockey, yet this looked just like their usual brand of crap hockey this year. The kind of game Roy would probably say they were right there in it, and played a good game.

Terrible PP, bad PK, can't enter the zone, can't get out of their own zone, can't bury their chances. Just Avalanche hockey 101.

Good to see that gutless puke Backes still plays the same way. Two second left with a two goal lead and he takes two running charges at Duchene from the wing off the faceoff. Don't think there's a bigger coward in hockey. Tackles an 18 year old MacKinnon last year. Goes after Duchene for no reason earlier in the year. Now he's taking charges at Duchene with two second to go.

I don't know about that. I felt we took it to a new level of suck last night.

 

[cgf]

Please, we got pushed around through much of the second, but we ended that period well and were the better team in the third. If they could've turned it up more, or responded earlier in the second the avs could've came out of this match with a deserved result.

 

[Avsboy]

Please, we got pushed around through much of the second, but we ended that period well and were the better team in the third. If they could've turned it up more, or responded earlier in the second the avs could've came out of this match with a deserved result.

How many scoring chances did the Avs have? Three? Four?

 

[m0ngr31]

Last night was the first time I turned a game off this year. What a disappointment. They aren't going to sniff the playoffs playing like this. Make a trade. Something needs to change.

 

[henchman21]

The Avs played better last night than when they got shutout by Marty... low standard, but true.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Last night was the first time I turned a game off this year. What a disappointment. They aren't going to sniff the playoffs playing like this. Make a trade. Something needs to change.

Weird, coincidence, I turned it off after the 2nd too. I wasn't interested in subjecting myself to that level of effort, it was painful to watch.

What I've begun focusing on and is utterly maddening is how the defenders constantly chip the puck up the boards to the other team when in our zone. Every. Damn. Shift. Barrie is the worst culprit of this.

 

[Freudian]

Avs played well enough in the first period but were dominated in the other two periods. In the second Blues just pounded them, using last and long changes to their full advantage. In the third they just killed the clock and Avs couldn't do anything about it.

What I've begun focusing on and is utterly maddening is how the defenders constantly chip the puck up the boards to the other team when in our zone. Every. Damn. Shift. Barrie is the worst culprit of this.

I think it's part of the system to chip the puck out when under pressure. Avs always do it and there is no way the coaches would allow it if that's not the plan.

 

[Hesher]

I wish the Avs would play like the Blues did in the 2nd period.

The Avs scored 10 goals during this 5 game trip. That's not good enough.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

What I've begun focusing on and is utterly maddening is how the defenders constantly chip the puck up the boards to the other team when in our zone. Every. Damn. Shift. Barrie is the worst culprit of this.

It's painful to watch. The defense can't even complete a pass to each other. Hejda is pretty bad at it as well.

I'll admit that I was surprised when McKenzie said the Avs are looking for a RHD in any ROR trade, but when you watch games like last night, you can see why. Barrie struggles against a forecheck and he's just too small and weak defensively to handle top 6 forwards. Getting him on the 3rd pairing and giving him even more favorable matchups would be a good thing. It would also help if he had a decent partner, but baby steps.

Last night was pretty painful, but for some reason I'm not able to just turn games off, no matter how bad.

 

[JoemAvs]

Weird, coincidence, I turned it off after the 2nd too. I wasn't interested in subjecting myself to that level of effort, it was painful to watch.

What I've begun focusing on and is utterly maddening is how the defenders constantly chip the puck up the boards to the other team when in our zone. Every. Damn. Shift. Barrie is the worst culprit of this.

We don't have a solid breakout strategy. Often they basically have no other choice.

I am surprised that you would see Barrie as the worst culprit. Maybe because he has the most clearing attempts because Guenin doesn't even really try anymore and just gives it to Barrie.

I think Barrie tries to skate out the puck pretty often or give an outlet pass when he is not under heavy pressure.

Last night was an off game for him , though. You very well might be right.

 

[InjuredChoker]

How many scoring chances did the Avs have? Three? Four?

i had avs at 5 ES chances (briere, talbot and cliche had one each... and i'm not sure if the last one can even elevate the puck). but only one after the 1st period (barrie rush, passed it to iggy who one timed and it was deflected wide).

blues totally locked it down after the avs scored.